May 25, 2010

The Web Advertising Dilemma

What if you picked up the telephone and instead of getting a dial tone you got an ad? You'd be angry, right? That's because the telephone is a medium of communication. When you are in the process of communicating, you don't want to be slowed down or sidetracked.

What if you picked up a dictionary and instead of finding a definition you found an ad? You'd be disgusted, right? Because a dictionary is a medium of information. And, once again, when you're looking for information, you don't want to be distracted or misdirected.

On the other hand, you turn on the tv every night and the first thing you see is an ad. It's probably annoying, but it doesn't make you angry. Why? Because tv is primarily a medium of entertainment, and you have grown accustomed to entertainment media carrying advertising.

The problem the web has as an advertising delivery system, is that it is a little of each. It's partly a medium of communication, partly an information medium, and to a lesser degree, an entertainment medium (remember, 99% of all video is still viewed on a TV.)

Because it is a hybrid, it has had a hard time finding its legs as an ad medium.

The currently fashionable idea that marketers can manipulate social media to serve their needs is largely a delusion. Yes, there will be isolated successes. But most web users are far too savvy to confuse honest social commentary with contrived social media "marketing." Social media is currently an effective way for companies to maintain good customers relations, and for smallish retailers to deliver sales promotion messages.

However, advertising on the web (i.e., commercial messages that create demand) will not be fully optimized until someone figures out how to put messages into a communication and information environment that are as acceptable as they are in an entertainment environment.

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Ad Contrarian Says:

"Shakespeare was a storyteller. You're a copywriter.""Good ads appeal to us as consumers. Great ads appeal to us as humans."

"Social Media: Tens of millions of disagreeable people looking to make trouble."

"As an ad medium, the web is a much better yellow pages and a much worse television."

"Sometimes success in the advertising business requires sitting quietly and letting clients proceed with their hysterical delusions."

"Marketers prefer precise answers that are wrong to imprecise answers that are right."

"Brand studies last for months, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and generally have less impact on business than cleaning the drapes."

"The idea that the same consumer who was frantically clicking her TV remote to escape from advertising was going to merrily click her mouse to interact with it is going to go down as one of the great advertising delusions of all time."

"Nobody really knows what "creativity" is. Every year thousands of people take a pilgrimage to find out. This involves flying to Cannes, snorting cocaine, and having sex with smokers."

"Marketers habitually overestimate the attraction of new things and underestimate the power of traditional consumer behavior."

"We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand. We get them to love our brand by convincing them to try our product."

"In American business, there is nothing stupider than the previous generation of management."

"If the message is right, who cares what screen people see it on? If the message is wrong, what difference does it make?"

"The only form of product information on the planet less trustworthy than advertising is the shrill ravings of web maniacs."

"There's no bigger sucker than a gullible marketer convinced he's missing a trend."

"All ad campaigns are branding campaigns. Whether you intend it to be a branding campaign is irrelevant. It will create an impression of your brand regardless of your intent."

"Nobody ever got famous predicting that things would stay pretty much the same."